Questions

I'm so confused, isn't it possible? She's had three months of chemo. In the beginning, her groin was swollen down to her foot because of a lymph node that had cancer in it. The oncologist said that she thinks that the chemo is working for her because it's gone down completely and she stopped taking one of the pain meds for her back but is still wearing a patch for pain. She's doing very well, I think that it's affected her more emotionally than physically to tell you the truth. She only lost a little bit of her hair and you can't tell because of how she styles it. She takes a nap every day but that's mostly from boredom because although she feels well, her job as a cleaning woman proved to be to much physical ork for her. Perhaps I have false hope for her but I refuse to believe that she can't beat this.

Has she had any chemo or any other treatments so far? I am just curious what would have made the tumors shrink.

yes she had a pet scan and will be getting a ct scan on monday to see if it's shrunk.

Are these the results of a PET scan?

I apologize, I was unclear. She is in PA and has an oncologist and urologist there but will be going to Sloan next Monday. Also, my father in law told me that she had it in the vertebrae in her back but after reading the doctors notes my sister in law said no, it's in lymph nodes between the vertebrae. Phew!!!

Kieley......I can't believe she cancelled an appointment with one of the top Bladder cancer specialists at Memorial Sloan.? It is a standard practice now to go in and do a second TURB after the first TURB within a short amount of time as it is known that if the surgeon does not get all the margins it will indeed seed. Because she was staged at the highest level the cancer had already left her bladder long before they got in there. You really need to convince her to go to a top facility at least to get the best pathologists and the best care. If there is anything to be done for her at this stage they will know. Its not a problem to remove the bladder..the point is not to shrink the tumors in the bladder......its to give her chemo to shrink hopefully the affected lymph nodes...and if anyone has the latest technology its MSK for dealing with bone cancer. At least get a top ranking opinion. Pat